MEDIA RELEASE

10 July 2000

WAYNE SMITH REGRETS ALL BLACK TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT DELAY

All Black coach Wayne Smith regrets the delay in announcing the All Black team for Saturday's test with Australia.

"I'm really sorry, but it's not my fault," an angry Smith said today.

"We picked the team last week and sent it up to Mallard's office on Friday for he and Clark to have a look at, but then this Charlie Dempsey thing blew up, and Trevor's been a bit busy ever since."

"Now with Wimbledon and the Mark Todd stuff, I don't know when he's going to be free to give the team the big tick for Saturday, yet he's still demanding his tickets."

"Worse still, I hear Helen Clark's still fuming over the Adidas balls incident, because apparently she'd assured John Howard last month that Mehrts would be kicking with them on Saturday, instead of the Gilbert balls, and now we've gone and changed that too."

"Toddy's upset too because we gather Trev thinks some big lock from Wainui ought to have his job, and wants to talk to Tony Gilbert and me about that before he approves the team," Smith explained.

Smith said he was hopeful that the team would be finalised before kick-off on Saturday, but it really all depended on Trevor at this stage.

- All further queries should be referred to the United New Zealand Parliamentary office for response.

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